PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — When a gunman started firing inner an tutorial building on the Brown University campus, college students didn’t dwell up for reputable signals warning of tension. They bought records nearly straight, in bits and bursts — thru telephones vibrating in pockets, messages from strangers, rumors that felt urgent on account of in addition they might be able to simply defend any individual alive.
On Dec. 13 as the attack at the Ivy League institution conducted out at some level of finals week, college students took to Sidechat, an anonymous, campus-explicit message board outdated widely at U.S. colleges, for like a flash-flowing records in real time.
An Associated Press diagnosis of nearly 8,000 posts from the 36 hours after the shooting presentations how social media has develop into central to how college students navigate campus emergencies.
This combo image made with photos offered by the FBI and the Windfall, Rhode Island, Police Division presentations a person of interest in the shooting that occurred at Brown University in Windfall, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. (FBI/Windfall Police Division through AP)
Fifteen minutes earlier than the university’s first alert of an active shooter, college students were already documenting the chaos. Their posts — raw, fragmented and rarely scared — formed a digital time pill of how a college campus experienced a mass shooting.
As college students sheltered in space, they posted whereas hiding beneath library tables, crouching in classrooms and hallways. Some comments even came from wounded college students, adore one posting a selfie from a health facility mattress with the easy caption: #finalsweek.
Law enforcement officers are viewed open air a storage facility where a suspect in the shooting at Brown University changed into as soon as stumbled on tiring, Dec. 18, 2025, in Salem, N.H. (AP Photo/Reba Saldanha, File)
Others asked urgent questions: Turned into as soon as there a lockdown? The save changed into as soon as the shooter? Turned into as soon because it steady to lunge?
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It will most certainly be days earlier than authorities identified the suspect and stumbled on him tiring in New Hampshire of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, later linking him to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Abilities professor.
Right here’s a gape at how the shooting unfolded.
Fling of collective consciousness
Described by Harvard Journal as “the College’s stream of collective consciousness,” Sidechat permits any individual with a verified university email to post to a campus feed. On most days, the Brown feed is stuffed with complaints about eating corridor food, jokes about professors and stress about assessments — fleeting posts running the gamut of pupil lifestyles.
On the Saturday afternoon simply earlier than the shooting, a pupil posted about how they wished in addition they might be able to simply “play Minecraft for 60 hours straight.” Then, the posts without notice shifted.
A poster looking for data in regards to the campus shooting suspect is viewed on the campus of Brown University, Dec. 17, 2025, in Windfall, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
Crowds started pouring out of Brown’s Barus and Holley building, and any individual posted at 4:06 p.m.: “Why are folks running a long way from B&H?”
Others like a flash adopted. “EVERYONE TAKE COVER,” one wrote. “STAY AWAY FROM THAYER STREET NEAR MACMILLAN 2 PEOPLE JUST GOT SHOT IM BEING DEAD SERIOUS,” one other user wrote at 4:10 p.m.
Dozens of frantic messages adopted as college students tried to discover the records gap themselves.
“so r we on lockdown or what,” one pupil asked.
By the time the university alert changed into as soon as sent at 4:21 p.m., the shooter changed into as soon as no longer on campus — a reality Brown officials didn’t yet know.
“The save would we be without Sidechat?” one pupil wrote.
A college spokesperson acknowledged Brown’s alert reached 20,000 folks minutes after the school’s public safety officials were notified shots had been fired. Officials deliberately didn’t use sirens to steer clear of sending folks rushing to appear safe haven into wound’s formulation, acknowledged the spokesperson, Brian E. Clark, who added Brown commissioned two external evaluations of the response with the unbiased of improving public safety and security.
Prolonged hours of hiding
Prolonged after the sun had residence, college students sheltered in dusky dorm rooms and sight halls. Blinds were closed. Doorways were barricaded with dressers, beds and mini fridges.
“Door is locked residence windows are locked I’ve balanced a metal pipe remark on the tackle so if any individual even tries the tackle from the open air it’ll rep a loud noise,” one pupil wrote.
College students reacted to every sound — footsteps in hallways, a long way away sirens, helicopters overhead. When signals came, the vibrations and ringtones were jarring. Some feared that names of the tiring would be released — and that they would investigate cross-test any individual they knew.
Folks reduction candles at some level of a vigil, Dec. 14, 2025, in Windfall, R.I., for the victims of Saturday’s shooting on the campus of Brown University. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
Law enforcement moved thru campus buildings, clearing them ground by ground.
A pupil who fled Barus and Holley asked whether any individual might maybe well also textual teach material his fogeys to let them know he had made it out safely. Others acknowledged they had left telephones in the attend of in classrooms after they fled, unable to reach frantic family. Ironically, these closest to the shooting often had the least records.
Many American college students expressed emotions hovering between numbness and heartbreak.
“Lawful bought a textual teach material from a friend I haven’t spoken to in nearly three years,” one pupil wrote. “Our last messages? Me checking in on her after the shooting at Michigan Shriek.” Multiple college students answered, asserting they’d had identical experiences.
International college students posted about fogeys unable to sleep on the various aspect of the field.
“I simply need a hug from my mom,” one pupil wrote.
Alarm sets in
Because the hours dragged on, college students struggled with identical outdated needs. Some described urinating in trash cans or empty laundry detergent bottles on account of they were too terrified to lunge away their rooms. Others spoke of spicy to manage.
“I changed into as soon as on the avenue when it took space & without notice I felt so scared,” one pupil wrote. “I ran and didn’t cool down for a whereas. I if truth be told feel numb, tired, & about to throw up.”
Pictures of Brown University shooting victims Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, left, and Ella Cook, are viewed amongst plant life at a makeshift memorial at the school’s Van Wickle Gate, Dec. 17, 2025, in Windfall, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
Yet some other wrote: “I’m locked inner! Haven’t eaten the rest right this moment! I’m so scared i don’t even know if I earn out of this alive or tiring.”
Some college students posted into the early morning, more than 10 hours into the lockdown, asserting they couldn’t sleep. Sidechat additionally documented acts of kindness, in conjunction with a pupil going door to door with macaroni and cheese cups in a gloomy dorm.
Recordsdata, and its limits
College students repeatedly asked the identical questions — news? sources? — and challenged every other to test what they saw earlier than reposting it.
“Frankly I’d somewhat hear misinformation than folks now now not file stuff they’ve heard,” one pupil wrote.
Others pushed attend, sharing a Google Doc that might maybe well develop to 28 pages where college students might maybe well also discover basically the most up to this level, verified records. Some posted police scanner transcriptions or warned in opposition to relying on synthetic intelligence summaries of the developing remark. Professors — who now now not often post on the app — joined the feed, urging caution and offering reassurance.
“Ought to you’re talking in regards to the active remark please add a source!!!” one pupil wrote.
However “legitimate records,” college students renowned, often arrived with a lengthen.
Interior about 30 minutes of the shooting, posts incorrectly claimed the shooter had been caught. Stories of more gunshots — later proven spurious — continued into the evening and the next day, fueling agonize and frustration. Asked one pupil, what are police doing “RIGHT NOW”?
Replies came like a flash.
“They are attempting their easiest,” one person answered. “Be grateful,” one other added. “They are putting their lives in threat at this 2d for us to be steady.”
A campus changed
College students awoke Sunday to a campus they no longer known. It had snowed overnight — the predominant snow fall of the academic year.
In post after post, college students called the survey unsettling. What changed into as soon as in general a earn together felt as an different adore affirmation something had irrevocably shifted.
“It if truth be told wound seeing the flakes fall this morning, horny and tragic,” one pupil wrote.
At the same time as the lockdown lifted, many acknowledged they were in doubt what to realize — where in addition they might be able to simply traipse, whether eating halls were open, whether it changed into as soon as steady to lunge.
“What attain I attain rn?” one pupil posted. “I’m shedding my thoughts.”
College students walked thru new snow in a daze, heading to blood donation centers. Others seen plant life being placed at the campus gates and open air Barus and Holley.
Many mourned now now not only the two college students killed, but the innocence they felt had been stripped from their campus.
A snowman begins to sag on the in general-bustling Fundamental Green at Brown University, where the autumn semester changed into as soon as canceled a week early following the campus shooting, Dec. 17, 2025, in Windfall, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
“Will by no formulation gape the predominant snow of the season and now now not take beneath consideration these two,” one pupil wrote.
With the lockdown ended, college students returned to their dorms as Sidechat continued to discover with difficulty and reflection. Many acknowledged Brown no longer felt the identical.
“Snow will continuously be bloody for me,” one person posted.